Bad Match

I saw this film on Netflix one night and it passed the time and had some interesting moments, but it was a bit predictable and just was too unbelievable in some areas to be a good film. It also looks very cheap in its production values, at times not feeling like a movie at all, but almost like a home movie. Of course, a lot of movies that get made that don't get the theatrical treatment look this way because they do not have a budget. I am sure the makers of this film thought they had a clever script and a cool twist, but neither really is the case. Still, I give them credit for their effort.

The story has this loser guy who plays video games, works his job and hooks up with girls using a dating app. Very attractive girls that he has no trouble picking up and hooking up with. Well, he swipes on a girl named Riley and soon learns that some girls want more than a one night stand. After thinking he has gotten her out of his life, his life begins to fall apart!

The movie is an unrealistic view of dating apps from the male perspective as guys do not have the success this guy does if they look like him. Men always outnumber the women by 10 to 1 minimum on this sites, so even with the guy's strategy of swiping right on all women, I still find it highly unlikely he'd be able to pick up a girl with the frequency this film was showing him have in this movie. Also, they telegraph what is going to happen at the end a bit too much in this one, suffice to say, pick up the phone when your lawyer calls and do what he says.

So, not a horrible movie by any stretch of the imagination, just needed more to it. The ending needed to be hidden a bit better, as it is most people who view it are going to figure it out. The ending scenes with the dude and Riley are pretty interesting and it has its moments where it shines, but come on, no guy would ever have this kind of success on a dating site. The film would have been more realistic if it had a female in the lead and she had a stalker come after her.

Not a fantastic film, but well acted, not great production value, not a new premise, but pretty entertaining with a good twist, that I did see coming. Never the less a good watch.

Tired of the tired old remakes with an updated (tinder) twist. This was literally Swim Fan. The female even looks like the psycho from Swim Fan.

An American thriller; A story about a young advertising agency worker and cad who dates women for sexual gratification using a gamified dating app. This dark, tawdry tale bears some similarity to the film 'Play Misty For Me' in how it unfolds: a one-night stand with one person's reaction avoidance and the other person's reaction obsessional tendency before a truce; then the antagonist won't stop. The main theme was not to portray the excesses of masculinity in the digital meat market nor the idea that there will always be one crazy person out there. It is the idea that people are a good judge of their own mistakes but often a poor judge of the mistakes of others. The film succeeds in showing the dark side of modern dating and the dangers of online engagement and avoids the common trope of the villain being set up to be knocked down. All in all, it is surprisingly effective as a thriller despite the narrow scope. My verdict: Not sideswipe.

Harris, a successful bachelor, uses dating apps to meet women for his own satisfaction, but when he meets Riley things rapidly get out of control. Is she crazy? Watch and find out! This is not in the same league as Fatal Attraction but is a reasonably good time passer. Acting is sufficiently good, the pace never gets too slow, there are a few quite brutal moments and the film does throw in some effective black humour. It is also predictable but overall I quite enjoyed it.